Pakistan must answer Indian belligerence: Daily

Islamabad, June 11 (IANS) Pakistan must come out with “a concerted, diplomatic response” to India’s increasing belligerence, a Pakistani daily said on Thursday.

The Dawn said in an editorial that it was difficult to discern “any wisdom or even common sense in the Indian strategy”.

The newspaper referred to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks in Dhaka taking pride over New Delhi’s role in the 1971 war that led to the break up of East Pakistan and its birth as an independent Bangladesh.

“Once again, Modi’s government appears bent on raising the temperature in the India-Pakistan relationship,” Dawn said.

It also said that Modi’s extensive outreach to the South Asian region “increasingly looks like Modi’s attempt to try and isolate Pakistan inside Saarc”.

Dawn also denounced comments by an Indian minister who “suggested that the Indian cross-border raid into Myanmar in response to an attack on Indian security forces could be repeated on the western (Pakistan) border”.

“Consider the breathtaking Indian arrogance on display here, and even naked war-mongering,” it said.

After referring to responses in Pakistan, the daily suggested that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif “needs to convene his National Security Council to draw up a concerted, diplomatic response”.